Javascript CSS Selector Engine Timeline

January 13th, 2008 | javascript

I'm interested in understanding all the selector engine code. In order to watch the development from the most basic to the quickest, I wanted to gather all the data points. Take a look, as you can see, Jack Slocum was definitely right when he said "selector processing power has gone from Pinto power to a Mustang GT 500."

2003.03.25: document.getElementsBySelector() by Simon Willison (later used in behaviour.js) [source]
2004.04.10: CssQuery() 1.0: by Dean Edwards [source]
2005.08.19: CssQuery() 2.0. [source]
2005.08.22: jSelect (precursor to jQuery) [source]
2006.01.14: jQuery first release. [source]
2006.01.18: Prototype. Initial release of selector engine. [source]
2006.04.04: moo.dom (precursor to mootools) [source]
2006.08.26: jQuery 1.0 [source]
2006.11.14: Mochikit Selector. (orig. ported from prototype) [source]
2007.01.08: jQuery 1.1a ("10-20x faster than 1.0") [source]
2007.01.11: DomQuery by Jack Slocum (ExtJS). [source]
2007.02.05: dojo.query(). [source]
2007.03.21: base2.DOM. [source]
2007.05.01: Prototype 1.5.1 [source]
2007.05.07: Mootools 1.1 [source]
2007.07.01: jQuery 1.1.3 ("800% faster") [source]
2007.07.10: Ext 1.1 RC1 [source]
2007.07.10: Dojo 0.9 [source]
2007.12.04: YUI 2.4.0 [source]
2007.12.17: NWMatcher by Diego Perini [source]

Update: Added Base2, CssQuery1.0. Corrected jQuery launch date.
Update: Added Dojo 0.9, NWMatcher.

(Drag to navigate timeline)

18 comments ↓

#1 John Resig on 01.13.08 at 5:53 pm

Quick clarification: jQuery was first released on Jan. 14th 2006 at BarCamp NYC. But other than that, looks great.

#2 aaron on 01.14.08 at 8:56 am

Thanks for this list. I'm quite interested in this too.

#3 pauldwaite on 01.14.08 at 9:14 am

I think, now that you’ve published this here, you can copy it to Wikipedia, crediting this entry as your original source.

Could be wrong, I’ve never done this myself.

#4 Matt on 01.14.08 at 12:33 pm

What part of this falls under the "no original research" policy? This timeline is fact, and you've cited each entry. Besides, who actually follows Wikipedia's policies?

#5 Javascript News » Blog Archive » Javascript CSS Selector Engine Timeline on 01.14.08 at 1:08 pm

[...] Irish put together a bit of history in the form of the Javascript CSS selector engine timeline which shows us that “selector processing power has gone from Pinto power to a Mustang GT [...]

#6 Paul Irish on 01.14.08 at 2:47 pm

@John: Yeah I knew it was "released" then, just couldn't find any online reference at the time. I've updated the post, thanks.

@Paul & Matt: You guys are right. Once I thought about it, it's not my original thought or ideas. Hmm.. now where to put it.

#7 Dean Edwards on 01.14.08 at 3:44 pm

cssQuery 2.0 was released in 2005. cssQuery 1.0 was released in April 2004:

http://dean.edwards.name/my/cssQuery/1_0/

Nice to see that you added base2. :-)

#8 Paul Irish on 01.14.08 at 4:06 pm

@Dean: Roger that—updated. Thanks for dropping the note.

#9 Ajaxian » Javascript CSS Selector Engine Timeline on 01.14.08 at 4:18 pm

[...] hooked in the data to the simile Timeline widget, because I can’t say no to a rich [...]

#10 Alex Russell on 01.14.08 at 5:03 pm

Dojo's selector engine has continued to evolve beyond the original you note here. The 0.9 and 1.0 releases of Dojo both included major additions and refinements to our engine (as will 1.1).

Regards

#11 Brad on 01.14.08 at 10:45 pm

I think you should label your Y axis.

#12 Paul Irish on 01.14.08 at 11:47 pm

@Alex, Thanks. I'll dig up the URLs and throw those releases in.

@Brad, I'm using the Simile Timeline script, which really doesn't do anything in particular with the Y axis. So here, the vertical positioning really doesn't mean anything.

#13 Max Design - standards based web design, development and training » Some links for light reading (15/1/08) on 01.15.08 at 6:21 am